U.S. National Team

Klinsmann Trims National Team Roster to 22 Players

The U.S. national team coach dropped five players and added another to his latest roster, a team that will square off against South Korea on February 1.

BY
John Godfrey
Posted
January 24, 2014
4:15 PM

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JURGEN KLINSMANN couldn't bring himself to make his January camp roster cuts before the team traveled to Sao Paolo, Brazil for a two-week dry run. Maybe the coach has seen too many seasons of Top Chef, and didn't want anybody to suffer the indignation of packing their boots and going home so early in the process.

So the entire contingent of 26 athletes made the journey to South America. Five who traveled to Brazil, however, will not be joining the national team for the February 1 friendly against South Korea (5pm Eastern; ESPN2, UniMas). And, presumably, this quintet is no longer in consideration for a spot on the 2014 World Cup team.

Shane O'Neill, Chance Myers, Seth Sinovic, Tally Hall, and, somewhat surprisingly, Chris Klute, were all cut from the squad today. Michael Parkhurst, newly returned to North America from his difficult time in Germany, was added to the roster. Michael Bradley will not be joining the team, as he is in Toronto preparing for the upcoming MLS season. Here is the revised 22-man roster:

If your consumption of this news just won't be complete without a feel-good, semiautomated quote, here you go:

"All of the players have put in a tremendous amount of work and effort these past two weeks," Klinsmann said. "We had a great opportunity to introduce some new players into the senior national neam program and they have done extremely well. I think they have a bright future, and now they go back to their clubs with a better understanding of what it takes at the international level. We now move forward with the chance to finish off the camp with the goal of getting a result against Korea."

Surprised that, say, Eric Alexander made the cut and Chris Klute did not? Glad to see DeAndre Yedlin on the team? Share your thoughts below, and be sure to create a U.S. Starting XI vs. South Korea with our cool interactive tool.